“She hates me,” broke in Adrian.

“Ah!” laughed Ramiro, “there speaks the voice of small experience.  Oh! youth, so easily exalted and so easily depressed!  Joyous, chequered youth!  How many happy marriages have I not known begin with such hate as this?  Well, there it is, you must take my word for it.  If you want to marry Elsa Brant, I can manage it for you, and if not, why, you can leave it alone.”

Adrian reflected, then as his mind had a practical side, he put a question.

“You spoke of the prospect of enormous wealth; what is it?”

“I will tell you, I will tell you,” whispered his parent, looking about him cautiously; “it is the vast hoard of Hendrik Brant which I intend to recover; indeed, my search for it has been at the root of all this trouble.  And now, son, you can see how open I have been with you, for if you marry Elsa that money will legally be your property, and I can only claim whatever it may please you to give me.  Well, as to that question, in the spirit of the glorious motto of our race, ‘Trust to God and me,’ I shall leave it to your sense of honour, which, whatever its troubles, has never yet failed the house of Montalvo.  What does it matter to me who is the legal owner of the stuff, so long as it remains in the family?”

“Of course not,” replied Adrian, loftily, “especially as I am not mercenary.”

“Ah! well,” went on Ramiro, “we have talked for a long while, and if I continue to live there are affairs to which I ought to attend.  You have heard all I have to say, and you have the swords in your hand, and, of course, I am—­only your prisoner on parole.  So now, my son, be so good as to settle this matter without further delay.  Only, if you make up your mind to use the steel, allow me to show you where to thrust, as I do not wish to undergo any unnecessary discomfort”—­and he stood before him and bowed in a very courtly and dignified fashion.

Adrian looked at him and hesitated.  “I don’t trust you,” he said; “you have tricked me once and I daresay that you will trick me again.  Also I don’t think much of people who masquerade under false names and lay such traps as you laid to get my evidence against the rest of them.  But I am in a bad place and without friends.  I want to marry Elsa and recover my position in the world; also, as you know well, I can’t cut the throat of my own father in cold blood,” and he threw down one of the swords.

“Your decision is just such as I would have expected from my knowledge of your noble nature, son Adrian,” remarked Ramiro as he picked up his weapon and restored it to the scabbard.  “But now, before we enter upon this perfect accord, I have two little stipulations to make on my side.”

“What are they?” asked Adrian.